Ancient but modern Leominster house wins award
From the outside it looks like a black metal box, but inside ancient stonework and even preserved ivy branches rub up against ultra-modern fixtures and fittings.
A converted 17th century cottage on the south Shropshire border has been selected at one of just six buildings in the West Midlands to bag a Royal Institute of British Architects award.
The innovative but unassuming Croft Lodge Studio, in the countryside at Bircher, between Ludlow and Leominster, is in the company of a University of Birmingham building, the Jaguar Land Rover engine manufacturing centre, and the Remembrance Centre at the National Memorial Arboretum.
The awards were given out at a ceremony at the Rofuto Restaurant, Park Regis Hotel, Birmingham, hosted by TV presenter Michael Holmes.
Croft Lodge Studio, a £160,000 project by Kate Darby Architects and David Connor Design, was also given an additional regional small project of the year award.
It will now be considered for a national award architectural excellence, to be announced in June.
A judges report said the "minimalist black box clad in corrugated metal with large clear openings" nevertheless sits well in its rustic surroundings.
"The Croft Lodge Studio is a striking and imaginative project full of small delights and skilful solutions," the report says.
"The decision to encapsulate the remains of the 17th century cottage with almost everything left intact – including the dry ivy branches and the trimmings, in a modern house – is both bold and brave and is successfully carried out by the project team.
"Once inside, the spaces are surprisingly welcoming and comfortable, contrary to an original concern that the preservation of the badly dilapidated old structure would make the interior too precious and stiff.
"The old parts add richness and an element of theatre and poetry to the interior but do not dominate it. The new building wraps around the old house with care and imagination and has merits of its own including an airy studio space with beautiful views and a quality of light and details.
"In part hidden behind Tolkien-scale giant trees, the building is the complete opposite of a Hansel and Gretel gingerbread house – not one jot of pastoral sweetness or prettiness.
Natalia Maximova, regional jury chair, added: “The winners deliver an architecture with a narrative and a poetry, while also fully responding to the functional needs of the facilities they created. It is a year of quieter and well-mannered design, nevertheless, no less confident and powerful for that reason.”
The shortlist for the RIBA Stirling Prize for the best building of the year will be drawn from the RIBA National Award-winning buildings later in the year.
